Poisoning Our Future

The Dove cannot bear to post more happy talk in the face of this: Alarm over radioactive legacy left by attack on Lebanon.

From the Independent (UK), Robert Fisk reporting:

We know that the Israelis used American "bunker-buster" bombs on Hizbollah's Beirut headquarters. We know that they drenched southern Lebanon with cluster bombs in the last 72 hours of the war, leaving tens of thousands of bomblets which are still killing Lebanese civilians every week. And we now know - after it first categorically denied using such munitions - that the Israeli army also used phosphorous bombs, weapons which are supposed to be restricted under the third protocol of the Geneva Conventions, which neither Israel nor the United States have signed.

But scientific evidence gathered from at least two bomb craters in Khiam and At-Tiri, the scene of fierce fighting between Hizbollah guerrillas and Israeli troops last July and August, suggests that uranium-based munitions may now also be included in Israel's weapons inventory - and were used against targets in Lebanon. According to Dr Chris Busby, the British Scientific Secretary of the European Committee on Radiation Risk, two soil samples thrown up by Israeli heavy or guided bombs showed "elevated radiation signatures". Both have been forwarded for further examination to the Harwell laboratory in Oxfordshire for mass spectrometry - used by the Ministry of Defence - which has confirmed the concentration of uranium isotopes in the samples.

How about this report from ABC newson possible uranium bombs used against Palestinians?

The Dove doesn't make categorical statements like "I will never..."

But she certainly understands why Lebanese say they will never, ever forgive Israel for the war of 2006.

Forgiveness of such devastation can only come after the wounds have healed, and how long will it take to heal the sea, the soil, the air, when they have been befouled by petroleum and radioactive metals?

We need justice, truth, dialogue and reconciliation now.

Israel: Can you really believe that in this tiny planet, you can pollute and destroy the waters and soil of your neighbors without harming yourselves?

Poisoning your neighbors will never bring you peace or security. You are poisoning the future of your own children as well as ours.

Comments

[MarxistFromLebanon]

Great post, well done...

MFL

[alon]

I am against this bombs, but the U.S use them, the U.K use them,
the hezbolla shoot on our cevilians rockets with tiny balls, why everyone can do what they want but we can't?
I have a question...
do you can't forgive hezbolla also that they shoot on israeli cevilians? without even warn them...do you want to judge them also? do you want to judge the palestinians on the suicide bombs?
of course you can not, they are not country they can do what they want and no one will say them anything...if you want to judge israel leadership on wars crime you should judge them too...think on that like that...from one side they bomb us, snatch our soldiers (and this is not the first time) and if we will not attack them they will continue in the next years...and from the other side if we will bomb them every one will hate us...and say that we are nazis...what would you do?
sorry on my english but I would like to know your answers on my two questions.

[Leila]

Dear Alon - to your first question "why can everyone do what they want but we can't" I will answer with a question:

Even if I say you have the permission or the right to drop radioactive bombs, phosphor bombs, or cluster bombs, why would you expect the victims of these bombs to forgive you for it?

Using various arguments, it seems that your leaders believe that they have the right to use new radioactive bombs. Okay. So you are not using the bombs "illegally." But if they poison the soil of LEbanon for generations, how do you expect the Lebanese to "move on" or "forgive and forget?"

Whether I forgive the Palestinians or Hizbullah - well, my heart and my conscience are my own. I am not saying I don't forgive Israelis, I am saying I understand those Lebanese who don't forgive.

To your second set of questions - I think it's simple-minded to say "well these enemies of ours are bothering us so we have the right to use any means necessary to fight them."

Did the phosphor bombs help you militarily? No. Your army made terrible mistakes and the bombs they used, whether cluster, phosphor or radioactive, did not compensate for your army's mistakes.

Did these bombs help you in world opinion? No. Did they help you in the long term prospects for peace and security? I don't think so.

And what if these radioactive bombs, for instance, end up seeping into Israeli groundwater and poisoning Israeli children the way they are poisoning Lebanese children? Do you think that radioactivity respects the international border?

THere is no military solution to the conflict with Hizbullah or with the Palestinians. Your own generals admit it. All generals know this. Sooner or later you will have to negotiate with the Lebanese, the Syrians, and even the Palestinians. You may be able to "expel" Palestinians as your new cabinet member suggests, but simple expulsion won't solve your problem, will just make it bigger and last longer.

Because of Israel's actions in Lebanon of 2006, she has insured that whatever peace might come with Lebanon will be bitter for generations. It did not have to be that way.

Well, I know you may say that you don't care about the temperature of peace, as long as Israel is secure. I say to you that dropping radioactive bombs on your neighbors will not in the end make Israel secure.

And yes, my own country, America, uses radioactive bombs on the Iraqis (and in Kosovo as well). We are wrong and we will pay for it, if not in my lifetime then in future generations. I hope I live long enough to see Cheney, Bush and Rumsfeld in the dock at the Hague.

That is my true opinion, and you may say I'm not truly a Dove because I don't speak sweetly. So be it.

[alon]

I look on this like that:
if we wouldn't fight with hezbolla, they will continue in the future because they see us as weak nation.
you the Lebanese wouldn't do nothing, and if we wouldn't bomb you, some of you even wouldn't hear on this.
you need to understand that you cna't hurt someone and then expect that he will not do nothing.
the mean of phosphorus bombs isn't to kill people, the means of this bombs is to intrude bunkers.
we used them only in the south, like beint jbeil and villeges that hezbolla control there, we warn the cevilians to leave, we send them even SMS...stop to beleive the hezbolla that I.D.F didn't succeed in nothing 'cause its a lie...
and if americans used them why I didn't hear on this bombs, I tell you why...'cause its america, if they kill cevilians its fine but if israel do that....they are nazis, facist...why you don't complain on your own country...'cause its more easy to blame israel?

[Kevin]

Don't worry, it's a Robert Fisk story. You know how he likes to make stuff up.

[David H]

Do you have a link to the third protocol?

All I can find was http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protocol_III and that is probably not what is meant here, right?

Before we start throwing random accusations at Israel, I think we should find out what the third protocol actually says, and determine if it actually applies.

[Eyal]

Going to your links, the Wikipedia link (under "Uranium bomb") makes no connection between DIME and uranium, nor does it state DIME is radioactive. and the ABC News link doesn't mention radioactivity either.